I can't imagine...

Imagine slipping on some sneakers and running 3.1 miles in 13 minutes. I wouldn't want to lace up and put my feet in the same shoes as Tucsonan Benard Lagat. What he does is just unimaginable. Lagat shattered the American record in the indoor 5,000 meters at the Reebook Games in Boston Saturday night. Lagat won the race in 13 minutes 11.50 seconds. Incredible! I was never a runner. I have no problem going to bed and dreaming about baseball, but running, it just never occurred to me to dream about crossing the finish line in record time with thousands of people cheering me on. How can a human being run that fast for that length of time? When I was in my 30s, I tried to keep up with my oldest son as we competed in a handful of 10,000 meter runs. I once ran the first two miles of a 10K in Phoenix in 15 minutes before I called it quits and limped in and finished in a shade over 54 minutes. Those first two miles...well, I thought I was flying.It just doesn't seem possible that a human being can run a mile in under four minutes. Nor, is it possible for me to understand how a human being can run a metered-mile in a shade over 3 1/2 minutes -- a feat Lagat has accomplished many times in Olympic events. I think I'll go out and take a five-mile walk and feel the breeze.